Friendship Lost In Flurry Of Suits Over Land Deals

Feud Pits Enfield, Suffield Families

Two politically connected families are pitted against each other in a series of lawsuits that allege fraud and theft in several land deals in Enfield and Somers.

The former Democratic town chairman of Enfield, Thomas Tyler, and his brother, Russell, have sued Patrick and Betty-Ann Reilly of Suffield, accusing them of illegally skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars from joint ventures by the two families.

The Tylers have also sued Enfield Councilman Sean McGuire, a Democrat, accusing him of helping the Reillys steal the money. McGuire, who is Patrick Reilly's nephew, was the accountant for the development companies in the land deals.

The Reillys in turn have sued the Tyler brothers, accusing them of withholding money from one of the deals and fraudulently foreclosing on some property, including the Reillys' summer home in Narragansett, R.I. James Sherman, a Somers lawyer, was also named as a defendant in the Reillys' lawsuit because he was trustee for some of the land in the deals.

The Reillys' lawyer, Bill Breetz of Hartford, has filed a grievance with the Statewide Grievance Committee, accusing Thomas Tyler, a lawyer in Enfield, of violating the Connecticut Bar Association's Rules of Professional Conduct.

Breetz said Thomas Tyler violated ethics rules governing business partnerships between lawyers and their clients because the deals were unfair to the Reillys, they were not in writing, and Tyler did not advise Reilly to get independent counsel. Breetz also said Tyler had a conflict of interest in some of the land deals because he had an interest in the land and the development company, while also representing individual home buyers and the banks that financed the mortgages.

``It's a textbook example of how lawyers ought not do business with their clients,'' Breetz said.

Tyler's lawyer, Kathleen Eldergill of Manchester, said the accusations are unfounded because Tyler never acted as the Reillys' lawyer. She said the Reillys always had outside counsel.

On the question of the land deals, Eldergill said she was still working on a response to the grievance.

The disputes have spawned five lawsuits in two states over the past several months. The Tylers and the Reillys are suing each other in Vernon Superior Court and in Wakefield, R.I., where the Reillys initially filed their lawsuit to stop the Tylers' foreclosure on their summer home.

The lawsuits in Vernon are on hold while identical lawsuits in Wakefield go forward. But the Tylers' lawsuit against McGuire will continue in Vernon.

All of the principals in the lawsuits referred questions to their lawyers.

According to the lawsuits, the Reillys and the Tylers entered into a series of joint ventures in December 1986 in which they agreed to develop residential land.

Under companies known as Karpar Builders Inc., Emerald Builders Inc., Camelot Builders Inc. and Camelot Estates Association Inc., they sold single-family homes in the Shamrock Estates, Emerald Estates, Strawberry Estates and Camelot Estates subdivisions in Enfield, and the Heron Pond subdivision in Somers.

The Tylers put up the money and the land, and the Reillys oversaw the construction and sale of the homes, the lawsuits say.

According to the Reillys' lawsuit, the Tylers were silent partners who did not want their involvement in the companies made public.

``At the insistence of the Tylers, none of the agreements between the parties were put in writing and the Reillys were instructed by the Tylers not to disclose the economic interest of the Tylers in these projects,'' the Reillys' lawsuit says.

According to the oral agreement, two-thirds of the net profits would go to the Tylers and one-third of the profits would go to the Reillys, after all construction costs were paid and the Tylers were reimbursed for the land and the loans, the lawsuits say.

The Tylers and the Reillys were longtime personal friends, but the partnership soured in July 1993, and both sides give conflicting accounts of its demise.

According to the Tylers' lawsuit, the Tyler brothers told the Reillys in July 1993 that no more loans would be made until the Tylers got a full accounting of all the joint ventures.

The lawsuit says that on Aug. 11, 1993, McGuire and Patrick Reilly produced incomplete records, and despite repeated requests, never gave a full accounting of the ventures.

Based on a review of the incomplete records, the Tylers' lawsuit claims that the Reillys illegally took ``several hundred thousand dollars'' that should have gone to the Tylers.

Part of the money was used to finance land deals in Rhode Island and to renovate the summer house in Narragansett, said Eldergill, the lawyer for the Tylers.

The Reillys' lawsuit gives this account:

Patrick Reilly told the Tylers in July 1993 that he wanted to finish the projects and discontinue their partnership, the lawsuit says. Thomas Tyler then asked for all of the financial records so the two parties could settle their accounts.